JP 58044326 A describes a water sampling device with a plurality of sample containers. A complicated electromechanical mechanism is used to open the sample bottles and then close them again after filled. The sample bottles have only one opening, and they are not flushed. Each bottle exhibits its own complex electromechanical actuation mechanism, which is activated by a motor-driven central cam. JP 01084131 A describes a water sampling device that stores the samples in a shared magazine. A waterwheel held predominantly above the water surface scoops the sample water using cuplike scoops, and guides it into a container, from where it is conveyed into one of the magazine chambers. This device is not suitable for use underneath the surface of the water, and selecting the respective sample container in the magazine is difficult. U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,071 describes a water sampling device having a plurality of sample chambers. Each sample chamber has its own inlet valve. All outputs are interconnected, and a pump acting in both directions conveys the sample water into a storage container in one direction, and a cleaning fluid into the previously used sample chamber in the other direction. The cleaning fluid is flushed out again prior to the next use. The device is conceived for use in contaminated water environments, and having to rinse with cleaning fluid complicates the process and increases the equipment outlay. DE 40 12 625 C2 describes a water sampling device for special use in boreholes, which exhibits no changer, and hence can only take a single sample. An electromechanical mechanism is also used here for opening and closing the single opening to fill the sample container. Sensors acquire specific parameter values of the water, e.g., located in a borehole, and report them to a control unit, which initiates the water sampling process once specific values have been reached. AT 398 002 B describes a water sampling device for use in particular in wells and boreholes, which has no changer, and hence can only take a single sample. The sample container exhibits two valve flaps joined by a string. While the sample container is being lowered into the water, the bottom valve flap is held open by the flow pressure, while the top valve flap is held open by a dwell time magnet. After the desired depth has been reached, gravity moves the bottom valve flap in the sealing direction. The final seal on the sample container is established by pulling on the mooring rope, thereby releasing the upper valve from the dwell time magnet, and moving both valve flaps into the sealed position. The valve mechanism is very simple, and can no longer be used at greater water depths, since it is activated by a pull of the rope. EP 1 493 656 A1 describes a water sampling device that is carried as payload on a submarine. It is provided that a plurality of samples be taken and divided into separate sample containers. A purging device for the inlet conduit is intended to ensure that only the respectively desired water gets into the next sample container. This publication did not describe the kinds of seals and actuation devices in any greater detail. DE 102 32 623 B4 describes a water sampling device that can use a plurality of sample containers horizontally arranged one atop the other in a settling rack to take a profile of groundwater in any body of water desired by simultaneously opening all sample containers and then also simultaneously closing them again after the surrounding water has calmed. The contents in the sample containers represent the layers of water in direct proximity to the floor. The sample containers are sealed on either side with sealing plugs, much like known Niskin bottles. The sealing plugs connected by means of a resilient elastic band are opened when use starts, and held open by an external burn wire. After the water has been sampled simultaneously in all containers, the process of closing the containers is activated when flowing seawater quickly eats through the corrosion wire, so that all sample containers are simultaneously tightly closed by their sealing plugs with the resilient elastic bands. The structural design of this device makes it impossible to use for taking individual water samples per sample container.
The article EXOCET D, WP5, “Compilation of instrument specifications for integration an the ROV of the IFREMER VICTOR 6000 for the MOMARETO cruise”, pages 8 and 9, available at ifremer.fr/exocetd/documents/results/5D1.pdf (found on Jun. 5, 2009), describes a “Pepito” water sampling device, which exhibits twenty-five sample containers that can be filled by means of a valve system in the structure housing. A valve controller is not described in the publication. The water sampling device is provided as a load for an independently movable underwater vehicle, and controlled via computer. A flow does not pass through the sample container. The article “Development of an active, larger volume, discrete seawater sampler for autonomous underwater vehicles”, available at mbari.org/stall/ryjo/pdfs/Bird_et_al—2007.pdf (found on Jun. 5, 2009) describes a “Gulper” water sampling device, which is used on an AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle), and exhibits ten 2-liter sample containers. Each sample container consists of a cylindrical housing, a one-way inlet valve, and a plunger on the inside, which is pulled up by a tensioned spring at the time the water is being sampled, and draws in the water sample in less than two seconds. The tensioned spring is held in place by a latch. If necessary, a release cord can be pulled, thereby removing the latch and deploying the spring. The rope-pulling activation makes the device unsuitable for use independently of the watercraft at great depths.
DE 41 32 410 A1 describes a sampler with sample containers that can be sealed at the top and bottom by folding covers, similarly to Niskin bottles. The covers are here activated by an outer spring and a trigger mechanism with a rip cord. The sampler avoids the disadvantage of an elastic band running on the interior, which could contaminate the enclosed sample, and thereby falsify a measuring result.
WO 99/18421 A1 describes a sampler that automatically draws in water samples through a filter, subjects the filtrate to biochemical treatment, and can collect the used filter designators in sample tubes after an analysis. The sample tubes are permanently sealed at the bottom, and can be briefly opened at the top by turning a filter carousel just to incorporate another filter designator.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,415 B2 describes a sample container similar to a Niskin bottle, in that it exhibits springs arranged on the interior for sealing both ends with folding covers, which are activated by an actuation device. The sample container is convenient, and the covers close tight, so that the samples can remain in the sample container until an analysis can be performed, and refilling is unnecessary. A sample changer is not provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,693 A describes a fixed sample container with a flexible second inner container, which can be opened and closed in a previously known manner by means of outside spring elements. The material of the inner container prevents the sample from becoming contaminated by the material of the fixed sample container. Air or water can be filled into the space between the containers to regulate the temperature. When removing the sample from the flexible inner container, contact with air can be minimized.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,600 A describes a flexible sample container that is collapsed when emptied, and contains no buoyancy-generating air while being deployed to the stipulated depth. Additional drifting weight is avoided. An outer spring-loaded mechanism can open and close the container via rotatably mounted cylinder valves.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,890 A describes a trigger mechanism for sealing sample containers on a multiple sampler, which is rotatably mounted on a central axis in the center of the sampler, and can each seal a respective freely selectable sample container via spring-mounted pins and balls by releasing a tether along with spring elements and covers secured thereto on the selected sample container.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,012 A describes a trigger mechanism for sealing sample containers on a multiple sampler, which is rotatably mounted on a central axis in the center of the sampler, and can seal the next sample that is sequentially arranged around the axis via spring-mounted pins by releasing a tether along with spring elements and covers secured thereto.
JP 10 197 419 A describes a sample container that can be inwardly opened via conical valve seats, plungers and valve springs located at their inner ends by applying an outer mechanical force along the central axis, and then closed again when unloaded. The sample container has a flexible element that engages through the outer wall, which equalizes the pressure at different water depths without contaminating the samples.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,413 describes a water sampling device with a plurality of sample containers, which are rigidly arranged on the outside of a mounting frame in the form of a drum magazine, referred to in the publication as a rosette, with individual attachment devices, and can be individually removed. Each sample container is equipped with one inlet valve and one outlet valve, wherein the inlet valve can be activated from what is also an individual, highly complex electromechanical actuation device, and the outlet valve is synchronously carried along via a rope drive of the inlet valve. Each trigger mechanism has a tensioned torsion spring, which can open its sample container and then close it again exactly one time. The process of opening and closing the next sample container intended for use in taking a water sample can be initiated by way of a selector device in the form of an electromagnet, which can be triggered by an operator or program. The force of the trigger mechanism is guided to the inlet valve via a plug-in hexagonal drive, thereby enabling the removal of the sample container from the mounting frame. The mounting frame is moved perpendicularly through the water layers while suspended on a carrying rope, and water samples can be taken by individually opening and closing the sample containers. Once a sample container has been filled with a water sample and closed, it can only be reused after the sample has been removed on board, and the torsion spring has been tensioned again. The sample containers have a longitudinally oval cross section, with leveled sides to save on space when arranged in the drum magazine. The inlet and outlet valves are long stretched-out openings on the top and bottom faces of the sample containers, which are opened or closed by watertight, rotatably mounted valve cylinders situated in valve inserts lying underneath them. The valve cylinders are activated by the actuation device via the hexagonal drive. The actuation device is distinguished by an intricate interplay between the tripping magnet having a trigger mechanism comprised of two movably connected shafts with leveled areas for the magnetic plunger and stop surfaces on the one hand, and a spiral extension on the other hand, in connection with a hexagonal drive, a driving pin and the torsion spring. The valves and actuation device are very complicated, and hence expensive, sensitive and maintenance-intensive structures.